Cameron Gay-Marriage Tactics Disdain Party, Tories Say

By Kitty Donaldson -
Feb 6, 2013

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s
handling of a vote on gay marriage showed disdain for his own
supporters, some of his lawmakers say, questioning whether the
premier is leading the Tory party in the right direction.

Cameron, 46, did not appear in the House of Commons during
yesterday’s debate on his plans to give same-sex couples the
right to marry, skipping about 70 speeches by lawmakers over six
hours. Instead, he used Twitter Inc.’s social networking site to
welcome the preliminary vote in favor of the proposal, in which
136 of the 303 Tories opposed the premier.

Cameron’s lack of involvement in the debate and the fact he
scheduled the vote in the first place are signs he is out of
touch with values held by the Conservatives’ core supporters,
say some lawmakers, openly questioning whether the premier’s
authority is waning as the party heads to elections in 2015.

“I do hope and I expect that as a bright man he will
recognize the fact that there is a very strong sense of feeling
within his own party that he’s got to pay some attention to, and
that there has to be change,” Tory member of Parliament Roger Gale, 69, who opposed the gay-marriage proposal, told BBC Radio
4’s “Today” program. “If he doesn’t, he’ll end up with a lot of
disaffected people.”

While Cameron gathered plaudits among his own lawmakers
after pledging a referendum on the European Union last month,
data the day after his speech showed the economy teetering on
the edge of a triple-dip recession as the biggest budget cuts
since World War II continue to bite. Opinion polls indicate the
Tories are trailing the opposition Labour Party by about 10
percentage points nationwide.

‘Labour Win’

Conservative activists say they fear gay marriage may cost
the party enough votes to force it out of power in 2015, with
the anti-European Union U.K. Independence Party picking up
support.

“David Cameron has split the Conservative Party in half on
gay marriage and failed to win a majority of Tory MPs,” Tory
lawmaker Stewart Jackson, another opponent of gay marriage, said
on Twitter today. “Labour win.”

Cameron only won the vote in the House of Commons in London
last night by 400 to 175 with the support of Labour and his
Liberal Democrat coalition partners. As it was a “free vote”
in which lawmakers act according to their conscience, rather
than on party lines, Cameron can technically say he did not face
a rebellion.

The bill now moves on to detailed examination by a
committee of the House of Commons. It may yet face defeat in the
upper House of Lords or legal challenge from religious groups if
it becomes law.

‘Move On’

With yesterday’s Commons debate over, other Tory lawmakers
called for the party to put its divisions behind it and unite
against the threat from Ed Miliband’s Labour Party.

“If it was government business then this would be a
significant rebellion, and I think it would’ve severely wounded
the prime minister, but that is not the case,” one lawmaker,
Mark Pritchard, told BBC News television. “I think we now move
on as a parliamentary party, as a party in the country and unite
around the prime minister in joining him in trying to fix the
economy.”

One of his colleagues, Zac Goldsmith, said complaints about
the premier not appearing in the House of Commons were out of
place. The premier was meeting with U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden when the debate started.

“The PM went out on a limb to get equal marriage through,
but -- absurdly -- he’s still getting a kicking ’for not being
in the chamber,”’ Goldsmith said on Twitter. “Really?!”

Eastleigh Test

The Tories will face an electoral test in local votes
across England in May, and they started campaigning today for a
forthcoming special parliamentary election in the southern
district of Eastleigh, in which they’ll go head-to-head with
their coalition partners. The date for the vote hasn’t been set.

The seat became vacant when former Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, who held it for the Liberal Democrats, quit the Commons
this week after pleading guilty to perverting the course of
justice over a speeding offense.

Tory Chairman Grant Shapps, who’s in charge of campaigning,
was cited as telling the Daily Telegraph newspaper that voters
in Eastleigh have “been let down by an MP who was being less
than straightforward with his constituents”.